The statewide action Thursday marks the first time Kaiser therapists in Northern California will demonstrate in support of their 2,400 counterparts in Southern California who have been on strike since Oct. 21.
Glendale, Calif – With a strike by nearly 2,400 Kaiser mental health professionals in Southern California entering its second month Thursday, Kaiser therapists in Northern California will join their striking colleagues for simultaneous noontime rallies outside Kaiser corporate offices in Pasadena and Oakland.
In Southern California, mental health therapists, psychologists, social workers and psychiatric nurses will travel from their picket sites Thursday morning for a 12 p.m. rally with elected officials, allies and patients outside Kaiser’s regional headquarters.
Meanwhile, dozens of their counterparts in Northern California, who are under contract and still working, will hold a unity rally outside Kaiser’s corporate headquarters in Oakland, calling on the HMOs top decision makers to come to the bargaining table and reach an agreement.
Southern California Rally
WHO/WHAT: Striking Kaiser mental health professionals, along with patients, community and elected allies will picket Kaiser Southern California outside headquarters to mark the one-month mark of their open-ended strike.
WHEN/WHERE: 12 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21 outside the Walnut Center, 393 E. Walnut Street, Pasadena.
Northern California Rally
WHO/WHAT: Kaiser mental health therapists, along with community and elected allies, including Oakland Councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas, will picket outside Kaiser’s national headquarters and call for Kaiser to resume bargaining with its top decision makers at the table.
WHEN/WHERE: 12 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21 outside the Ordway Building, 1 Kaiser Plaza, Oakland
The strike in Southern California began on Oct. 21. After two bargaining sessions during the first week of the strike, there have been no subsequent sessions and no sessions are currently scheduled.
“Kaiser’s top decision makers are in Northern California, and they need to hear from us that the only way to end the strike is to start treating all its mental health professionals with respect and fairness,” said Shay Loftus, a psychologist for Kaiser in Northern California. “It took a ten-week strike for us to get a fair contract two years ago. There’s no reason for Kaiser to force another long mental health strike when its workers in Southern California aren’t asking for anything we don’t already have in Northern California.”
In 2022, Kaiser therapists in Northern California waged a 10-week strike to secure more time for patient care duties that can’t be done during therapy, such as responding to patient calls and emails, preparing for appointments, devising treatment plans, contacting social service agencies and putting notes in patient charts. The lack of time for these tasks has been a major cause of burnout and high turnover that has contributed to severe understaffing at Kaiser clinics.
While Kaiser agreed to guarantee full-time therapists in Northern California seven hours per week for these tasks, it’s only willing to guarantee its therapists in Southern California 4 hours. Kaiser is also unwilling to provide the same retirement benefits for its Southern California mental health professionals that it provides to nearly all other Kaiser employees or salaries that are comparable to what it provides therapists who provide medical care.
Kaiser’s insistence on providing poorer working conditions, wages and retirement benefits for its mental health professionals in Southern California calls into question the HMO’s commitment to transforming its mental healthcare system as required under a $200 million Settlement Agreement with state regulators that was signed in October of 2023.
After acknowledging that its mental health services are understaffed and that patients are waiting too long for appointments, Kaiser was supposed to have a state-approved corrective action plan in place by last spring. However, more than a year after the agreement, there is still no state-approved plan.
“If Kaiser can’t provide us enough time to do our jobs, then it’s never going to be able to fix its mental healthcare system,” said Ligia Pacheco, a social worker for Kaiser in Los Angeles. “Too many lives have been harmed by Kaiser’s disregard for mental health, and we’re going to strike for as long as it takes to make Kaiser value our work and the people we care for.”
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The National Union of Healthcare Workers is a member-led movement that represents 19,000 healthcare workers in California and Hawai’i, including more than 4,700 Kaiser mental health professionals.
